El Castillo by Richard Maddox PAPERBACK 9780252063398

El CastilloThe Politics of Tradition in an Andalusian Town\nAuthor(s): Richard Maddox\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: University of Illinois Press, United States\nImprint: University of Illinois Press\nISBN-13: 9780252063398, 978-0252063398\nSynopsis\nIn his innovative ethnographic history of the southwestern Spanish town of Aracena, Richard Maddox explores how tradition has been authored, what it has authorized, and to what extent it has been authoritative. His investigation of the cultural, political, and religious discourses and practices of various socioeconomic groups in Aracena offers a richly detailed view of how both leading citizens and ordinary townspeople have interpreted, used, and contested traditions over the last three centuries.\n Maddox argues that we can best understand culture in complex societies by taking into account the ways in which institutionally generated discourses and practices articulate with the informal, improvisational, and commonsense speech and custo.